I would love to see how you guys tote around your Tandems when traveling. Fancy or tied to the roof with bailing wire. Show them off please

We don't need no stinkin' racks.
15 seconds from garage to securely fastened inside our Honda Odyssey mini-van, Semi-Official team vehicle of tandem riders everywhere.

When we decided we were hooked on tandem riding, I traded in a really nice and nearly new F-150 Lariat for the mini-van and have no regrets. The tandem backs in to the console and the straps go around the steerer in a snap.

It comes out even faster, top off the tires, don shoes and helmet and we're ready to go. No putzing around getting wheels off and on and off and on again, no extra washing of road dirt acquired during transport, no lugging it back and forth to the hotel room.

I think that we are much more inclined to go off on more frequent and adventurous tandem excursions if we don't have to deal with the inhibitions and hassles associated with packing, handling and securing the bike.

One friend says that when someone asks how much your tandem costs, you should total the price of the bike and the cost that you incurred to buy a vehicle to transport it. Using this format we paid about $12k and feel that it has been a very worthwhile investment.

Feb 2006: Order Tandem
Mar 2006: Buy Yakima Sidewinder for Subaru Outback
Mar 2006: Tandem arrives
Jul 2006: Buy Honda Odyssey, get rid of Outback

We second what regomatic says......a Minivan is the way to go. We don't have kids, but the Tandem and the 3 dogs fit nicely (though not at the same time). I would love to see a larger pic of how you guys strap your bike down in the Odyssey. We have a board with at Cleat attached that we lock the fork to (front tire removed).

With that said, I still have the Yakima Sidewinder around for when I have to transport on our other car which is a Honda Civic. It's nice and secure although a bit pricey.

And I know you asked for pics but I'm too lame.

These are pics of our triplet on the top of our Honda CRV. The cross bars are yakima and the bike rack is home-built out of square steel tubing, a fork mount, diagonal brace (made of conduit), u-bolts. Putting it on top is pretty because because the fork mount is attached to a swivel which allows me to mount the front first, then pick up the rear wheel and swing it around.

WOW....Nice work there!!

Do you have detail shots of your diagonal brace? Seems like it would take awhile to get that attached with U-bolts.

Concur, carrying tandem inside a vehicle beats using/investing in a rack.
We carry our custom Zona tandem inside a '97 Honda Accord station wagon. In a hurry? Leave on both wheels, let front wheel hang out on rear bumper, put some padding (piece of carpet) between tandem and hatch and bungee the hatch down.
Or, take off one or both wheels, toss tandem in and go!
More secure than a rack, less hassle and still get high gas mileage (mid- to hi-30's mpg, depending how fast we drive).
Carried our tandem (wheels off) inside an old Honda Accord hatchback for years, 'til we bought the station wagon.
Works fine for us!

The brace doesn't take too long to attach, it is held with one U-bolt on the frame, probably 1-2 minutes. What takes a little longer is attaching the tubing to the yakima cross bars (4 U-bolts). I've attached some more detailed pictures. I can always e-mail some larger higher quality pictures if desired

I usually attach the tube the night before hand. I would say it then takes about 15 minutes to put the bike on or take it off. Goes like this. 1. tie handlebars so they can't turn 2. take front wheel off 3. put fork on mount 4. swing rear around put in wheel tray 5. attach brace. Its not too bad, we just leave a bit early for things. Having said that, our usual rides are close enough that we ride to the group meeting place. We only drive to special events.

PM sent.

I have a bike friday tandem and a 2002 Subaru Outback. I am trying to decide among a Yakima Sidewinder Rack, Tandem Topper (ATOC) and a rack made by Precision Tandems (Recommended by an acquaintence but I can't get to the Precision site to see it). Do you have an opinion among them? Can I install these racks directly on the Subaru factory roof rack or do I need the Yakima load bars?

OK...this our Greenspeed on our 93 Accord. The Burley trailer is in the trunk.

$8,000 tandem on a $2,200 car. Held in place by a $50 Hollywood rack!

Know thats a big bike...

The bike should always cost more than the car, He He!!!!!!......

Take Care,
Bill G

Link to Precision Tandems car rack catalog section; dial-up users need lots of patience.
https://www.precisiontandems.com/catframeaccess.htm

I'm not aware of a house-branded rack offered by Mark Johson at Precision Tandems; however, Mel Kornbluh of Tandems East offers one (scroll down to the middle of the page) https://www.tandemseast.com/parts/bags.html

If memory serves, our friends in Bend, Oregon, have low-rider mounts w/48" crossbars (~$194) on their Subaru Outback that they use with an Atoc/Thule non-pivoting tandem mount for their tandem. The weight and wind loading on a tandem makes for a pretty big load on a tandem mount and the less expensive clips that attach to the cross bars that are adequate for a solo bike just don't provide a lot of safety margin for tandems: think heavy crosswinds and wind blast from tractor trailers hitting the back wheel and 6' frame and you can appreciate the piece of mind that comes from a good roof mount system. A metal fabricator could probably come up with a beefier crossbar and mounting base but at the end of the day, unless they did it for the cost of materials, the Yakima or similar systems that mount (and lock) to the side rails on your roof rack aren't a bad investment if you plan to keep the vehicle for a long time... which seems to be the norm with Subaru cars.

FWIW: REI puts the Yakima stuff on sale about twice a year -- once in the Fall and again in the Spring -- which is worth waiting for.

If I'm able to post this picture correctly, you should see our tandem mounted on our Saturn L200 using a Saris rack. We were able to convert two single bike mounts with a tandem tray. This is mounted on our Saturn (made by Saris) load bars, connected to the factory roof rack.

KHS Tandemania Comp wouldn't fit in '93 Mitsu Expo wagon/mini-minivan so we got a Thule Tandem rack and mounted it on a Barrecrafter roof rack. Moved up to Mazda minivan and had to get Yakima crossbars to attach to factory rack to use Thule. But.........found it much easier and more convenient to put the bike in the van, right down the middle, with the fork tips secured in a <$20 Delta Bike Hitch mounted on a 1x6 board.

I've got a Honda Element. I flip up or take out the one back seat I keep in there, take the front wheel off of my old Burley Duet, roll the bike in backwards with the rear wheel between the driver and passenger seats, and clamp the fork dropouts into a Biketite mounted on a 1x4. So far so good.

Anyone had any experience getting a tandem inside a Honda CRV? Our tandem is coming in a few weeks, and a roof rack looks like our only option since the CRV seats fold up against the front seats and don't allow anything to go between the front seats.

I couldn't get a roof rack for my Chrysler Concord so I came up with this. I had a reciever hitch installed on the car and made an adaptor that I just leave in place. The rack pivots back to make loading and unloading a snap. Works great. I like it being behind the car and not on top. You don't even know it's there.

Too slick for words Redpath!

Slick...

As an aside, and pardon me for noticing, but unless your saddle is not in the normal riding position it sure seems like your tandem could be a bit on the small size and forcing an unusual riding posture.

I'm also guessing that your frame pump is too long to fit under the internal tube???

Sorry, sometimes I just can't help myself.

Cool design. With these fork-first racks, does the fork mount fully lock down, but still allow the bike to pitch up/down around the fork axis? Or do you leave the QR open while you work the rear wheel on, then tighten it down? I'm guessing the former, but the later is easier to implement

When I bought our old Burley and put it on top of the car to bring it home, I barely had the strength to hold it up there solo while I got the forks lined up and the chainring in the tray (spider leg down). This was on my solo Yak rack. I've seen racks like your design before, but I'm much more likely to roll my own than buy one.

Bungeed on top of the VW Beetle:



Another one... can't drive the car, but here it is, for fun, fully assembled in the VW Squareback:



-Greg

That's really nice. I like all these photos of cars being eaten by tandems. Do you have to lift the rack into the fork, or are you able to target the rack with the bike nose down a bit, then roll it up into place?

Loading is easy. Tip the rack vertical (no tools required) and drop the front wheel (obviously). Swing the bike up on the rear wheel and walk it up to the quick release. Nose the fork over the quick release skewer and clamp it tight. Then just swing the rack back horizontal. The rear wheel self guides into the wheel tray if you lined it up anywhere near close. I tie the rear wheel in with a short cord being a hillbilly. Someday I'll get a strap. I added stops to the rack so it doesn't crash into the car-ever. It's an easy one person job. Very secure. I've even used it as a work stand. The rack takes about 2 minutes to install and remove and stores easy to boot.